EYE-WITNESS STORY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 24, 16 November 1943, Page 5

EYE-WITNESS STORY

THE WELLINGTON TRAIN SMASH

KEITH DONALDSON'S ACCOUNT

Those who know Keith Donaldson of Whakatane who is now engaged in a military capacity in a Wellington engineering workshop will read the following account of the recent disastrous Wellington railway smash with adkled Interest. The account is part of a letter written by Mr Donaldson who was a passenger on the train concerned, but who fortunately travelled' in the last carriage.

Well to-day has been a day of 'misery and sorrow for lots of peor pie down this; way as our train ran oIT the rails this morning when it was: taking everybody to work and 'I must say I don't ever wish to see another one run off or to be on one. All we soldiers who work at Lower Hutt have two carriages at the back '-■of the train reserved for us and as .luck would have it they stopped in front of us this morning at Trenthani so we. climbed in to them, thank goodness. Well everything nvent O.K. till we were well down the line and then the carriage start<ed to shudder and jump a bit as though some one had applied the emergency brake and the train 'came to a sudden noisy standstill. There were screams and yells from all directions and someone said ".she's off the line. That was enough, we all -sail got out of the carriage like a jnob of startled, cattle and made for the front three carriages which were ■over on their sides and smashed to pieces while the old engine, was buried in the bank at an angle of 45 degrees.

What happened after that wasi a sight anyone and everyone who was there will never forget to the end •of their days. The poor women especially some of then}, were wonderful, there faces hardly recognisable. -Mostly girls going to work further 'down the line, or in Wellington. The •-engine driver and fireman seemed to be none the worse but the guard, got ia terrible kuocking about, being directly behind the engine. The first -carriage was ah old timer the front section or half being for the guards -•and the other for passengers. The walls and. roof were torn complete- • 3y off and just left the lloor on a "wheel or two. The second carriage •went half way through and, over ■ the first, it was smashed to pieces. The th.ird one was laying over on ats left side, pretty well smashed and -missing. The fourth one got very little. We were in the sixth one as luelc would have it. We usually pile iin anywhere and get chased to the ■back sometimes by the Sergeant. A Pilot Officer was sitting on a bank •of grass with a W.A.A.C. looking -after his leg and. ankle while li,i;l "wife was lying dead a few feet away pinned beneath a rail and where .'libs. 2 and 3 carriages had smashed into each other. What a sight. I heard he had tried to grab her as she was. 'flung out of the car and lie missed, she having fallen down an to tire wreckage, he at the/ same lime nearly lost his leg. One. of my cobbers in No. 3 carriage said two .girls sitting in front of him were both flung through a hole in the wall. The seat they were on just snapped-Like a carrot and the wall In front of them opened up and let them drop out and then immediately closed up again. If they hadn't •been thrown forward so< quickly he said they would have both been jammed. by the side of the .carriage. -Just a miracle I guess. One man •had both legs pinned by rails and Wreckage, piles of it, and was calmly smoking a cigarette. Goodness knows how they got him out. Another fellow was in between the engine and carriage and all we could see of. him was his leg from tha knee down. There seemed to be tons of metal and wood on him. One. or two old ladies and men got knocked ■about pretty badly but mostly the shock seemed to paralyse everyone.

The crowd, was terrifiq. injured girls and people everywhere. They carted two or three truck loads away to the hospital and ran a lot liome, as they w r ere in no condition to go tO' work.

It happened on a bend only a: chain <or two f'roni- where she ran olf three, or four months ago, the line just snapped and then "things started. Two girls were" thrown'out a window through glass and wjlloHws into a ■creek below and came up none the worse. Others arc disfigured for life, faces, arms and legs. You'll see it in the papc.r I| guess so I reckon Ifve said enough about, at. The last carriage will do me after this. tVe will be going to work and back, in trucks for a while now. They used

[to do it. until the public complained about wasting petrol but they might change their views jiow. Good job the train wasn't going fast or would have been a proper job. The whole works would, have folded up. The rails we saw to-day were twisted like spaghetti and wheels on axles bundled into little heaps, the sleepers thrown around just like match sticks. Well I guess 1 have said enough for the time being so I would close down till later on*